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Today’s readings

“You are what you eat.” We’ve all heard that as an injunction to eat healthier and take care of ourselves. And we would be well advised to do such a thing. I know I for one should have thought about that before I ate that pizza the other day. But I thought about that saying this week as I reflected on the readings we’ve just heard. You are what you eat. The externals don’t really matter that much; it’s the stuff that we let into us and then let come out of us that forms the kind of person we will be.

Today’s Liturgy of the Word speaks to us all about what’s in our heart. In the first reading, Moses enjoins the Israelites to obey the commandments, and only the commandments. Don’t add to it or subtract from it, he says, and people will know how wise and intelligent you are as a people. Indeed, obeying the law wasn’t for Israel’s sake alone. No, obeying the law was to serve as a witness to other nations that they too might see how good the Lord God is. God is there, Moses tells them, whenever he is called upon; God assures justice in the community and makes them respected in all the world. But this will only happen, he tells them, if they actually obey the commandments they’ve been given, and take them to heart.

Saint James picks up the theme in the New Testament reading today. Be doers of the word, he says, and not hearers only. What good is the law, what good is the covenant, what good is the Gospel if all we do is just passively hear it, letting it go in one ear and out the other? Better not to hear it at all than to make a mockery of it by simply ignoring it. When we hear the word proclaimed, it’s for our instruction, not just our edification. The word and the commandments are gifts to us, which is really just about the same thing that Moses was saying, and we should rejoice to have them.

As usual, in the Gospel, Jesus brings all this to critical mass. Here he has yet another altercation with the scribes and Pharisees. The begin to quiz him about his disciple’s habit of not washing their hands before they eat. Now before all you parents start siding with the Pharisees, they weren’t talking about cleaning dirt off their hands before a meal. They were talking about a ritual custom of washing, not only hands, but also jugs and other things. These rituals probably began as something the priests did before offering sacrifice. Much like the hand washing that is done in the Eucharistic Liturgy before the Eucharistic Prayer. But in the case of the Jews, this practice seems to have become something that ended up obliging everyone, and the Pharisees were keen to see that it was done faithfully by everyone, along with the other 612 laws they were required to practice!

So what Jesus was criticizing here was empty, meaningless ritual. Non-observance of these meaningless things, he says, do not make a person impure. Those demanding that people obey these human laws are themselves disobeying the law of God, Jesus says. So he illustrates the problem by making the point that real impurity comes from a much more fickle source: the human heart. It is not missing mere ritual cleansings that presents the problem. The real problem is not purifying the heart. Because from an impure heart comes all sorts of foul things: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils,” Jesus says, “come from within and they defile.”

The Catechism tells us, “The sixth beatitude proclaims, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ ‘Pure in heart’ refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness … There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith.” This, I think, is what Jesus was getting at. If we would be really clean, and not just ritually so, then we would do well to purify our selves from the inside out, and not the other way around. Pure hearts would avoid all the evils Jesus lists, and then some.

This is why I began by quoting, “You are what you eat.” The task before us is that of purifying our hearts, so that we may rid ourselves of the source of all these evil and vile things that can so easily come forth from us. What does that mean? Well, it’s probably different for every person. Maybe some of us need to stop watching so much television. Or spending too much time on the internet. Perhaps some relationships we have are not healthy and need to be ended. Maybe we’ve been paying attention to the wrong advice. Whatever it is that needs to be rooted out, it needs to go.

Then too, we have to put more of the positive stuff into our lives. Perhaps we need to pray more. Or to read the Scriptures or other spiritual books more. Maybe it would be good to spend more time with our families, to pray together, or watch some good television or a movie together, even to have more meals together. I know those things can be hard to do, but they’re never a waste of time or effort.

The point is that we need to do whatever it takes to purify our hearts. We need to root out the sources of evil thoughts and replace them with beautiful thoughts. Unchastity and adultery need to be replaced with faithfulness. Theft and murder with respect for property and above all, life. We need to do away with greed, malice, envy and deceit and replace them with honesty and justice. Root out everything that leads to licentiousness, arrogance and folly and replace them with encouragement and right relationships with others. And above all let there be no more blasphemy, that we may make way for true faith. Every source of vice has to be eliminated in our lives so that we can practice virtue, and become a people marked by purity of heart. This exercise is one that is tied to a promise for us: those who purify their hearts, the beatitude tells us, will truly see God. The Church teaches us that the goal of all of our lives is to become saints, and this, brothers and sisters in Christ, is how we do it.

What Jesus is saying to us is quite simple: we have to clear away the obstructions in our lives so that we can live as authentic disciples. Those of you who came to daily Mass this week may have heard me reflect for a few days on what the Christian disciple looks like. We heard all kinds of instruction on that this week. Today’s Liturgy of the Word brings that all to a crescendo. The Christian disciple looks like one who strives always to live with a pure heart. The Christian disciple watches what he or she takes in, because the Christian disciple knows we are what we eat.

Today's readings

Today, again, we continue our look at what the Christian disciple looks like. Today's readings give us two more good descriptions.

In the first reading, the Christian disciple is foolish! Or, at least, the disciple is foolish in the eyes of the world. St. Paul tells us in great detail that the wisdom of men and women in the world, however great it may be, is nothing in comparison to the wisdom of God. It is God who created the world and all its wonders, and it is God who knows the depths of the human heart. So often we are confounded by the mysteries of life: why do people get sick, and why do they die? Why is do people suffer? It all seems so foolish to us, with our limited vision. But God's vision is vast and comprehensive: God alone has the big picture. Because God created us, and created the world and all its wonders, God knows how it all should work, and what will happen to it, and what it will all become. The Christian disciple, Paul tells us, lets God be God and recognizes that our own limited knowledge can never lead us to the Kingdom. The Christian disciple may be foolish in the eyes of the world, but the Christian disciple knows that God's wisdom is so much more precious than anything the world may try to pass off as wisdom.

In the Gospel reading, the Christian disciple is not foolish! Much like yesterday's Gospel, today's Gospel paints a portrait of the Christian disciple as one who is ready for the coming of the Master. The difference in today's story is that the Christian disciple, like the wise virgins, not only look's for the Master's return, but is actually prepared to welcome him. The foolish virgins were of utter contempt because they had one specific purpose, to light the way for the Bridegroom. Journeys in that day took time, and people would often be delayed. It only stood to reason that they would have procured extra lamp oil and brought it with them. But for some reason they were distracted. Whatever it was that distracted them, it succeeded in deterring them from their purpose and left them locked out of the banquet. Let nothing ever deter the Christian disciple from his or her one mission: to light the way to Christ in everything that they do. God forbid the disciple would be deterred from the mission and end up locked out of the wedding feast that God provides.

We've seen in these last few days what the Christian disciple looks like. The disciple is not disorderly and lazy, but works tenaciously. Their lives are marked by authenticity and righteousness that permeates from a grateful heart. They are hard at the Lord's work and are prepared to meet the Christ the Bridegroom when he returns. They look for God's purposes to guide them through life, regardless of how foolish it may make them look to the world. What is it that we see when we look at ourselves? May it be our prayer that every time we take a look at ourselves, we look more and more like disciples of Jesus Christ.

Today's readings

For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.

Today we continue the preaching of John's "Bread of Life Discourse" and it may seem like we are beating home a point you already know. Perhaps by now you're more than a little tired of it. But as I said last week, it's important to do this every so often because anything we do over and over again can become routine and can cause us to become lax. We are receiving the great gift of our Savior's own body and blood, and we should always treat that as an unbelievably valuable treasure. So today I thought I'd share with you a little of the reason that preaching on the Eucharist is so important for me personally. I don't like to make my homilies about me, but I'm doing this because maybe you've had a similar experience, or maybe it's something your teenage, college-age, or young adult children are going through right now.

A few years before I went to seminary, some of my friends would sometimes go to Willow Creek Community Church, the evangelical mega church in South Barrington. They liked the church and were very fired up about it, and eventually talked me into going with them. I enjoyed it and found that the preaching was excellent, and so I went back many times with them. I still went to my home parish on the weekends, but during the week I would worship with my friends at Willow Creek. My friends eventually severed their ties with my home parish and went to Willow Creek exclusively. They were hoping I would do the same, and I considered it very seriously. The preaching was good – better than at my parish – and I think that's because the preaching mostly supported the spiritual life I was already living. I had discussions with my parents about leaving the church, and those went about like you think they would, but I continued to pray about my decision.

The answer I got from my prayer is that mostly God wanted me to make my own decision, but that when I came to a decision, God wanted me to commit to it and live it fully. And so I began to look at the membership materials from Willow Creek and thought I would probably join them. One Wednesday I went and they were celebrating their once-monthly so-called "communion service." The speaker, an ex-Catholic, talked about the forgiveness of sins and how, growing up in our Church, he had to go to weekly confession and the priest forgave his sins, or at least said he forgave them. It was a strong message against our sacrament. Then they passed the bread and wine, which after prayer, remained only bread and wine, mere symbols of the Eucharist. Listening to all that, I was struck to the core of my being. I knew then and there I could never be a member of Willow Creek or any other church than the Catholic Church, because there was no way I could live a spiritual life without the benefit of the Sacraments. I honored my promise to God to commit to my decision once I made it, and well, here I am today.

The point, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that the words we say are not mere words; they are so much more powerful than that. And the sacraments we celebrate are not mere symbols of Christ and his love for us; they are the real body and blood of Christ, the real presence of our Savior; the real experience of grace. Jesus makes it very clear that is flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. That thought repelled a lot of those who heard him say it at the time, as we will hear next week, and maybe it frightens some of those who hear it today. But for we who believe, and for we who are Catholics, there is no better news. The experience of the Eucharist is such an intimate experience and so precious to us because we're not getting second-rate symbols, we're getting the real body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ! And it is His own body and blood that nourishes us and strengthens us and enlivens us so that we can become the presence of Christ in our world, reaching out to those in need in our homes and in our communities. The consequence of not coming to partake of the Eucharist is very dire, as Jesus tells us today:

Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.

That's pretty direct language, and I don't think we can misunderstand its implication for us. Jesus is not talking about just the mere death of our bodies, but the infinitely more serious death of our souls. Nothing can take the place of receiving the body and blood of Christ. Only those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will have eternal life, and will be raised on the last day. It doesn't matter what kind of preaching you're getting somewhere else. If you're not being filled with the body and blood of Christ, nothing on earth can fill up that emptiness.

Looking at today's Liturgy of the Word as a whole, the implications for the preacher are humbling. Hopefully what we're providing is part of the rich table of Wisdom that we hear about today. It's much like what one of my professors in seminary told us, "If you're going to stand there and take up ten or fifteen minutes of the People of God's time, you better darn well make sure you have something to say." And my homiletics professor once said that at the end of our homilies, we should be able to say "The Word of the Lord." When we preach, it's not about us, it's about what the Lord wants to speak to all of us here. The words we speak must be meaty, rich and spicy, and not bland platitudes that nobody will ever notice.

And there is much on which to be fed in our Church's teaching. Indeed the rich table of Wisdom that comes to us from the Church is a long and Spirit-filled tradition. We have at our disposal the great words of Sacred Scripture, the teachings of the early Church fathers, the great Tradition of the Church which comes out of a lived history over 2 millennia old, and the Magesterium, the official teaching of the Church. Many churches base their official teachings on the words of Scripture alone, which sounds nice until you look at it more closely. Because everyone has to interpret Scripture, and there has to be some kind of teaching that guides how you do that. We start out knowing that Scripture alone is not enough. Indeed, if there were no Church teaching, there would be no Scriptures, because it's the Church that put the book that we call the Bible together in the first place. Our Scriptures, Tradition and Magisterial teachings all work together to give us guidance and focus our efforts on living the Truth. This is that wonderful Wisdom banquet that our first reading talks about this morning.

St. Paul tells us that we must not live as foolish persons but as wise, and that we must not continue in ignorance but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. I thought of this line this week as I read about the protesters that were here, at our parish, to demonstrate at the funeral of a young man who gave his life in service to our country. This wasn't some random group, friends, it was a church, or at least a so-called church, whose leader preaches that this kind of abominable behavior is not only okay to do but is actually the will of God. Can you imagine such a thing? Do you see what kind of foolishness we run the risk of falling into when we stray from the truth and fill our ears with only the things we want to hear? This is exactly the kind of thing St. Paul was preaching that we should avoid, and it obviously didn't go away with the Ephesian community. We must constantly be on our guard and always dine at the table of Wisdom, and e
ven more than that, never to fail to dine at the table of the Lord.

Because if we dine at the table of Wisdom, we will know the things of God. These are the things we really need to know, not the banal temptations of drunkenness and debauchery which the world dangles before our eyes in so many ways every day. And if we dine at the table of the Lord, we will be caught up in the life of God, we will have eternal life, and we will be raised up on the last day to live with God forever. That's the goal of our spiritual lives, brothers and sisters in Christ, and let nothing distract us from it. I found that I could not live without the Sacraments, and I am guessing you know that too. Let us all celebrate those Sacraments with reverence and joy, and treat them as the indescribable and precious gift that they are to us. Let us always speak of our love for the Eucharist in our conversations with others, so that they too might come to dine at the rich table of God and be caught up in all its fullness. Let us all taste and see the goodness of the Lord.